Thursday, August 27, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks - All in the Family Edition: Stepfamilies

Written as part of the blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. You should join us - all you have to do is pick three movies that fit the week's theme and tell us about them!

This month's All in the Family edition of Thursday Movie Picks is the hardest yet... partially because I didn't plan. I already picked my favorite (evil) stepmother (Anjelica Huston in Ever After), and my favorite step-siblings (Patrick and Sam from Perks of Being a Wallflower) in previous weeks. So, that leaves me with...

Well, let's just say I had to get a LITTLE bit creative.

Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006) In May 1944, Ofelia and her pregnant mother travel to the country to move in with her new stepfather... who just so happens to be one of the most ruthless Captains in Franco's army. Then she wanders into the labyrinth on the Captain's property, and... well... there's this... faun... who tell Ofelia that she is the Princess Moana, lost from home for years. But in order to prove it, Ofelia must complete three tasks, each more difficult than the last. Pan's Labyrinth is del Toro's masterpiece, a fantasmagoric wonder show seamlessly intertwining the childish world of fairy tales with the all-too-real adult world of the Spanish Civil War and uprising.

Juno (Jason Reitman, 2007) When teenager Juno asks her father and stepmother to sit down because she has something important to tell them, they thought it would be that she was expelled, or into hard drugs. But no, it turns out the idiot got pregnant (by Paulie Bleeker - didn't think he had it in him!), and now she's dealing with things way beyond her maturity level. There are many things I love about Juno, but the casting is probably my second favorite (after Diablo Cody's getting-even-better-as-it-ages script). They may be very staunchly middle American middle class, but wouldn't you want J.K. Simmons as your Dad and Allison Janney as your stepmom?

The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965) Fraulein Maria is the worst nun ever in the history of nuns: She spends her time singing and twirling around on mountaintops when she should be inside praying, she engages in all sorts of activities outside that get her dirty and ruin her habit, and then when the Mother Abbess sends her out into the world to serve as governess to the seven children of Captain Georg von Trapp, what does the bitch do? She falls in love with the man... who is in a relationship with the stunningly fabulous Baroness Schrader. But, this being a musical (even if it does take place in Nazi Germany), the Baroness sees the writing on the wall and leaves so that the not-so-star-crossed lovers can get together and possibly add to their happy brood... although really. SEVEN children? Nobody needs that many. I wrote plenty about this a while back for Hit Me With Your Best Shot, but I will say this again: This is Julie Andrews's best performance and I always think she won an Oscar for it. She should have.

Pan's Labyrinth is so goddamn beautiful. Weird thing is, though, I didn't like it the first time I saw it, because I was expecting something completely different (namely, more fantasy). But it stuck in my head and after watching it a second time, it moved up to All-Time Favorite status.

I really hope you enjoy The Sound of Music, although I find it hard to believe you haven't seen it yet!

Can't believe I didn't think of The Sound of Music!! Great catch, but don't be snatching my Julie Christie's Oscar away! Honestly though I'm sure if Dame Andrews hadn't already won for Mary Poppins she would have won for this. Love this movie in all it's at times corny excess and how flat out fabulous is Eleanor Parker as the Baroness!

I like Juno but felt it was overpraised, but then I am somewhat mystified by the charms of both Ellen Page and Michael Cera in that I don't see any. I do however love JK Simmons and Allison Janney and they made the movie for me. Terrific pick for the theme.

Pan's Labyrinth has been working its way up my queue for a while I think it's time to kick it to the top.

One of my picks this week deals with the Nazi threat as well but not in quite the same way as SOM and a more complex family blending then the traditional step relationship but it's in there as well and then two much lighter flix.

The Brady Bunch Movie (1995)-Taking the quintessential 70's blended sitcom family and transporting them to the 90's but keeping them firmly locked in their time is a perfect way of updating the material and this is a goofy and fun picture.

With Six You Get Eggroll (1968)-Widow Doris Day who has three young sons and widower Brian Keith a teenage daughter, played by a very young Barbara Hershey, fall for each other and decide to marry but run into problems when the kids resist making any concessions. Light, pleasant farce was Doris’s feature film swan song.

Tomorrow, the World! (1944)-A young German boy who has been recently orphaned comes to America to live with his spinster aunt (Agnes Moorehead), widowed uncle (Fredric March), the uncle’s teenage daughter and his future wife (Betty Field). Problems arise when it turns out he is a Hitler youth thoroughly indoctrinated in Nazi propaganda. While the family tries to make a home for him and basically deprogram him he resists and goes out of his way to be cruel to his uncle's fiancée, a Jewess, and does everything possible to tear the family apart. The film can be somewhat pat at times but it does try and tackle a complex subject.

Full disclosure: I haven't seen Darling, so I really can't say definitively that Andrews should have won the Oscar, but it is definitely an Oscar-worthy performance, one of the all-time best in my opinion. and yes: Eleanor Parker as the Baroness is just THE most fabulous bitch in the world. LOVE. HER.

How Allison Janney is so damn good even in roles as small as this continues to amaze me. She is a freaking miracle worker. I think Simmons should have won his Oscar for this over Whiplash, if I'm being honest. He's basically the perfect father. I didn't get Michael Cera until this, really. And I think Ellen Page is terrific in a super-difficult role to put over.

Haven't seen any of your picks (have purposefully avoided the Brady Bunch movie - it's not my thing), but With Six... is on my list. I <3 Doris Day.

Pan's is a beautiful film. I totally forgot that he was a step dad, though. I like, but don't love Juno. I will say that Page is fantastic in this and everything I've seen her in. Finally, shame on me because not only have I never seen it, but I have actively avoided The Sound of Music. It just looks soooooooo cheesy to me. Cheese can be good from time to time, but everything I've heard, read, and seen about it feels like overkill.

Love Pan's Labyrinth-it was so mystical and brutal at the same time. I enjoyed Juno and love The way the Step mom gave it to the hospital person. I must be on my way to senility to not have thought of The Sound of Music! I love that film even though, if I was one of the kids, i would be running away from singing. I have the soundtrack and have been to Salzburg which is just a beautiful as you see it on the film

About Me

Performer since birth, tap dancer since the age of 10. Life-long book-lover. Film obsessive. Frustrated artist since college graduation. Non-profit database specialist by day, tap teacher by night, Netflix binge-watcher by weekend.